Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Congress caves in on Bush detainee bill

"President George Bush has repeatedly assured us that the U.S. has not tortured detainees. The fact that Bush has released 14 high level detainees from CIA secret prisons indicates that "alternative interrogation techniques," the new euphemism for torture, were used in these facilities.

"The fact the CIA agents had refused to continue their interrogations also demonstrates that they were fearful about possible prosecution, from which the new bill protects them as well as everyone in the Bush administration.

"In his recent book 'The One Percent Solution,' John Suskind reports that Al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah, one of the fourteen and known to have mental problems, was water boarded by the CIA. He began talking about all sorts of plots, but not a single one was verified in a huge waste of resources ...

"We now have hard evidence of suspects being beaten to death as early as February, 2003. The U. S. military announced that an Afghan detainee had died in custody because of a heart attack. When Carlotta Gall of The New York Times examined the death certificate, homicide was indicated as the cause of death. The coroner wrote that the man's legs had 'basically been pulpified' by constant beatings.

"The ACLU has released 44 military autopsy reports that clearly demonstrate cases of death by torture. DOD 003164 is one such example: '[detainee] died as a result of asphyxia due to strangulation. ... Autopsy revealed bone fracture, rib fractures, contusions in mid abdomen ... Manner of death is homicide. Whitehorse Detainment Facility, Nasiriyah, Iraq.' Another detainee died under similar circumstances on January 9, 2004 in Al Asad, Iraq. He was asphyxiated and suffered blunt force injuries ...

"No wonder a great majority of Iraqis hate us and want us to get out of their country.

"There are many problems with the detainee bill which was rushed through Congress just in time for desperate Republicans to use a No vote as a way to claim that Democrats are soft on terror. The most terrifying provision of this bill is the denial of habeas corpus to detainees. The basic right for prisoners to appear before a judge and respond to the charges against them goes back to the Magna Carta of 1215.

"Even when charged, coerced evidence may be used against the detainees ..."New West

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